The Xerox DocuCruise, the document management company's latest regional sales initiative, reaches the end of its month long tour at the end of this week in Kish Island, Iran.

The Xerox DocuCruise reaches its final destination at the end of this week. The cruiser, which features three decks of Xerox solutions, has been on a month long tour of the Gulf to promote Xerox products. The cruise finishes at Iran’s Kish Island on May 6th, after calling at Muscat, Doha, Damman, Manama, Kuwait and Dubai.

The cruise, which cost Xerox in excess of $1 million, was inspired by the history of the Gulf region, according to Richard Adamo, president of Xerox Middle East, India, Eurasia and Africa (MIERA). “Xerox DocuCruise, which takes its inspiration from the rich maritime and sea-faring tradition of the Gulf, reinforces and reiterates our commitment to the region,” he said. “It symbolises our long-term investment in the region and our rich tradition to be first to market by bringing the latest, Xerox state-of-the-art solutions and products to our customers here.”

“Senior government ministers and key industry leaders from throughout the Gulf region have been on-board. DocuCruise is a novel tour and a unique opportunity for our key regional customers to witness the world’s most productive integrated document technology, that will help make businesses in the Gulf more productive and profitable.”

The ship is equipped with a wide range of Xerox solutions, from SoHo copiers to full scale book printing and binding systems. Although the expenditure involved is relatively high, the cruise ship provides the company with a way of taking some of its larger offerings to clients, to demonstrate their capabilities.

“We find it a very efficient way of bringing all these products to the customer,” explained Kaz Herchold, vice president, Office Systems Group, Developing Markets Operations. “Particularly when you are dealing with a big geography it is a very efficient way of doing a show and getting it as far about as we can. This isn’t the sort of equipment that you can advertise – when you advertise it, you look at a box, but given the sort of things that we were able to demonstrate, which are the applications, and the speed of the applications, is something that you are really only able to demonstrate live.”

Previously Xerox has used trains and fleets of trucks equipped with their solutions as a mobile sales platform.